By
Ada Brownell
I
imagine you’ve read or heard the true stories about someone taken to the
morgue, and then a hand moves, an eye opens, or a leg lifts, and the person is
alive.
Perhaps you were one of the hundreds who
purchased Heaven is For Real, the
story of a young boy who emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable
stories about heaven. The book
about little Colton by Todd Burpo, a Nebraska pastor, has 7,781 reviews and now is a movie.
I attended a writers’ conference where
the keynote speaker was Cecil Muriphey, who wrote 90 Minutes in Heaven with Don Piper, who lived again after declared
dead at the scene of an accident where his car was crushed under the wheels of
a truck .A pastor waiting at the scene 90 minutes later said God told him to
pray for the dead man. He did, and Piper immediately breathed and came to life.
The book is another best seller.
I tell in my book, Swallowed by Life: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal,
about Lynn
Orr, a man I knew in Denver, who had a heart attack. He said one minute he lay
in a hospital bed, and the next his bare feet stood on a smooth street paved
with gold. In the distance, he saw a beautiful gate and a city. He smelled
gorgeous flowers, and heard singing and rejoicing. He talked with Jesus. Then
he was back in the bed, worrying his body wasn’t covered as medical personnel
zapped his heart and brought him back.
I
don’t remember how long Lynn was said to
be clinically dead, but he testified to the glories of heaven and a few weeks
after I heard him speak, he went to be with Jesus. He said after seeing heaven,
he no longer desired to live on earth.
To
many people, these testimonies are proof of life after death. They are
wonderful to hear. Yet, are they proof?
In
Swallowed by Life, I present evidence
from medical science that we are more a body. I go into the miracles of cell death and
rejuvenation, where our bodies die and are replaced one cell at a time until
after seven years our whole body has died and been renewed except for the
central nervous system, and some evidence shows even dead brain cells sometimes
rejuvenate.
But
the greatest evidence is before our eyes all the time. We begin life as a
fertilized egg and we’re the person we became from the day God-designed life
burst into that tiny egg. We grew in the womb and were born at seven pounds or
so, and we’re still the same person, although we might weigh a couple hundred
pounds now.
I
or you could lose weight, a part of our flesh, and we’d still me or you—whoever
we were before.
We
could lose a leg, an arm, an eye, have diseased organs removed. A surgeon could
even cut out our heart, kidneys, lungs and transplant someone else’s and we
would still be who we are.
All
the things I mention are evidence we are more than a body. A neurologist told
me he believes the brain is the residence of the soul, so perhaps that’s why
the neurological system doesn’t die and regenerate constantly as other parts
do.
Yet,
is that proof we aren’t as connected to our bodies as we thought? I think it’s
great evidence, but still it’s not proof.
Why?
Because resurrection and salvation are matters of faith. John tells us, “For
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but
have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the
life. He who believes in me will
live, even though he dies; and whoever believes
in me will never die” (John 10:25-26).
St. Paul wrote to the Romans, “If you confess
with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe
in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans
10:9).
Jesus
said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).
Do
you believe? That’s what you need to do, because no one will disprove it or
prove it, and you have to believe in Jesus to live forever.
It’s
your decision.
©Ada Brownell
SWALLOWED BY LIFE: Mysteries
of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal
By
Ada Brownell
Do you
believe you could live with someone else’s heart or kidneys, but not without
your body? Evidence shows we’re more than flesh. The author, a prolific
religion writer and retired medical journalist, talks about the evidence; the
wonder of life with all its electrical systems; the awesome truth about cell
death and regeneration; mysteries surrounding the change from mortal to
immortal; where we go when our body dies; resurrection; and a glimpse at what
we will do in heaven. Questions and answers make this non-fiction inspirational
book a great text for group study. It’s written for support groups, religion
classes, people with chronic or terminal illness, individuals who fear death or
are curious about it, the grieving, and those who give them counsel.
Review: “It was wonderful how the
author merged the medical with the spiritual.”
Where
you can find Swallowed by Life:
Barnes
and Noble: http://bit.ly/JnbKVL
Booksamillion.com
http://ow.ly/cJmx8
GoodReads
http://ow.ly/cJmMe
Amazon: http://amzn.to/Jnc1rW
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